Rathcoffey's evergreen legend; Sean Moriarty

Sean Moriarty epitomises what it means to be a club stalwart. After 35 first team seasons, with many played as chairman and in other committee positions within Rathcoffey GAA, Sean stepped away. Well…not really, Sean made the transition five years ago, at aged 50, to the second team and remains there to this day.

The Baltracey man actually played underrage football for Clane while schooling in the area with his mother, who worked in the primary school.

Sean said, “I transferred to Rathcoffey when I was 15 because my father was involved in the club. I had already gone down there as a young lad because he was training teams, so I was hanging around.

“There was a little bit (of protesting the move) because that’s where I had started, but my father was always bringing me up to Rathcoffey. I knew it was inevitable at some stage and I don’t regret it at all.”

An amusing piece of trivia for what is now a local legend and not long after one of the most enduring stints in club football history began.

“I was 16 when I started to play with the second team in 1985 and then 17 with the first team the year after. I have been playing adult football for 40 years now,” Sean explained.

“I’d nearly be able to play with three generations in that time frame. I am getting close to playing with some lads’ grandfathers.”

As well as Rathcoffey duty as a young man, Sean played U14s with Kildare right through until U21 level, winning Leinster Championships up to and including minor.

“I started out as a wing-forward and then at around 20 I was a wing-back. I played with Kildare minors and U21s and made the transition in that time. With the club I was all over the place, I was in the forwards, the backs, midfield, everywhere. I’d have a period of a few years with each,” Sean recalled.

Rathcoffey’s Swiss army knife was of course a part of their 1990 Junior Football Championship winning team. It would be the only first team medal he claimed in his long career and in what was nearly a cruel twist of fate, he almost missed out on playing.

“We were playing Cavan and I fractured my ankle in April and luckily I got back for the final. I scraped back. I came on for the last few minutes of the semi-final and then started the final. I ended up playing 35 years with the first team and that was the one Championship we won,” Sean said.

Rathcoffey beat Eadestown 1-9 to 0-9 Eadestown to claim their first Junior Championship since 1969 and what is still the only other one in the club’s history.

“I remember I was corner-forward. It was a close game and Tony Cummins had saved a penalty. Our centre-back got injured as well so I was brought back. I remember more of that period of the game because it was the final 10 minutes and it was so tense. You were getting on the ball and just making sure you didn’t make mistakes. It was a great feeling and winning it on the field was incredible,” Sean recalled.

“It was a bit surreal because we were constantly fearing that they were going to come back.”

Next of course was Intermediate Championship and, despite their underdogs status, Sean and Rathcoffey reached the final four of the competition on more than one occasion.

He explained, “The next couple of years at Intermediate we were competitive and got to two semi-finals, more often than not the team that beat us went on to Senior level. We remained competitive for about five years, but then we started drifting back again.

“I remember we played Castlemitchell in the ‘92 semi-final and it was a ding-dong game, really close. We got a goal and it was disallowed before we lost by a point or two, that was the difference really. A ball was kicked into our full-forward, he offloaded to the wing-forward and it was drilled into the back of the net, but the referee said the full-forward threw the ball. We were raging, our opinion was of course that he didn’t, but there you go. That was a near miss.”

Rathcoffey did retreat to Junior football and, despite the club reaching a Junior Football Championship final in 2021, Sean remains part of only two teams to have claimed a winners medal.

“It was great and we were delighted. I was 21 and 34 years later we haven’t won a Junior ‘A’ again,” Sean said.

“It’s funny, I have an 18 year-old daughter, Eabha, who is playing with the football and camogie teams in the club and she has won two leagues in each and a Championship in both too. She has six adult medals at 18 years old and I have three at 55. It is funny how things work out.”

In a shock to no reader, Eabha isn’t the only Moriarty in the Rathcoffey set-up. Sean’s son, Tom, is operating at minor level and hopes of a shared competitive fixture on the field next year are helping to keep motivation high for the veteran.

“He is 17 and playing minor at the moment. I am hoping I might get a couple of games with him on the second team. I played with a few nephews over the years, but this would be the first child of course. I’ll be 56 and he'll be 18, so I am hoping it’ll work out. I’d say if I get through next year, that’ll be the height of it,” Sean explained.

“Last year at U16 level, the lads are joined (with Straffan) as St Edwards. We got a good bunch of guys and in the spring league we were in Division 3 and we won that. The summer league came in then and we were Division 2 there and we won that as well, beating Athy in a very good final. If we can keep them together, it would be great to bring them through.”

Sean Moriarty is a pillar of Rathcoffey GAA and undoubtedly a go-to man within the club. Next year, he will begin his 41st adult football campaign with his beloved Rathcoffey and his contributions on and off the field remain of staggering proportions.